Waterford took a huge step towards securing their Division 1A status in the Very Camogie Leagues this afternoon, as they fired in three first-half goals to set up a 3-16 to 0-12 win over Dublin at Parnell Park.
While Dublin travel to Galway for their next game, it'll be their home tie against Kilkenny in the final round that now looks like a de facto relegation decider, though Waterford need at least a draw against their neighbours in round four to be fully safe.
There wasn’t much between the sides in the opening 10 minutes in Donnycarney, when Niamh Rockett and Gaby Couch traded points.
However when Rockett got the faintest of touches on an Abby Flynn shot to send in the game’s first goal after 16 minutes, Waterford never looked back.
Lorraine Bray added the second goal, getting the rub of the green when her shot from a point rebounded off the crossbar into goalkeeper Eimear Hurley and back over the line, but there was no luck attached to the third, when Flynn’s vision and stickwork allowed her to pick out Mairéad O’Brien for a one-on-one finish just before the break.
Both sides enjoyed lengthy purple patches in the second half, with Rockett (who finished with 1-05) and Beth Carton (scoring 0-06 in total) building up their tallies as Waterford moved 3-12 to 0-07 in front, before Dublin emptied their bench and finally got their running game going.
Aisling O’Neill caught the eye with two excellent scores from play, giving their management food for thought ahead of their trip out west in a fortnight.
That will be a crucial game for Galway too, after champions Tipperary handed them their first defeat of the year in Kilbeacanty on a 2-14 to 1-13 scoreline.
It was a game of two halves in the South Galway venue, with 23 of the game’s 30 scores arriving in the opening half.
Niamh Mallon and Caoimhe Kelly were in sharp form for the home side, who led by three points on a handful of occasions, but Grace O’Brien was ruthless from play and from placed balls, adding a stoppage-time goal to her seven first half points to make it 1-11 to 0-11 at the interval.
The Tipp half-back trio of Mairéad Eviston, Caoimhe McCarthy and Sarah Corcoran were simply imperious after half-time, with Casey Hennessy also getting through a mountain of work in the middle third. That platform allowed Tipp to starve the Galway forwards of possession, though the Maroons also tightened the screw in their own half of the field.
With nearly 25 minutes gone in the second half, just two Tipperary points and a Galway goal from Mairéad Dillon had been added to the scoreboard, but once Clodagh McIntyre hit the net for the visitors, the result was inevitable.
All-Ireland champions Cork continue to be the form team in the division with three wins out of three games, but they got more of a challenge from Kilkenny than the 3-17 to 0-13 final score at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh would suggest.
An excellent Aoife Norris save to deny Orlaith Cahalane, allied to early points from the Kilkenny midfield duo of Laura Murphy and Aobha O’Gorman, helped to establish an early 0-06 to 0-02 lead for the visitors.
Cahalane didn’t miss when she got a second chance to hit the net and even though Kilkenny stayed in the game up to half-time, for Cork to lead by 1-07 to 0-09 after struggling to hit the high notes felt like a missed opportunity for the Leinster county.
The next 20 minutes were a completely different story, with the Rebels adding 1-07 unanswered.
Sorcha McCartan hit four points out of her 1-07 in that run, and once Saoirse McCarthy got the first of her two goals, Ger Manley’s troops were out of sight and could coast over the finish line.
With no games in Division 1B this weekend, the top-of-the-table clash in Division 2A between Offaly and Meath at Glenisk O’Connor Park looked like the big game of the weekend outside of the top flight.
Six points from Clodagh Leahy and three from Fianait Dooley helped the Faithful County overcome the concession of 1-02 in the opening minutes to record a 0-16 to 1-10 win.
Derry’s 3-07 to 0-06 win over Armagh and Kerry overcoming Carlow’s eight-point interval lead to edge a 0-15 to 2-8 thriller in Netwatch Cullen Park, means that those two counties are leading the hunt for the second final spot, with Offaly all but over the finish line.
